Booking It 2012 with Life as MOM

For 2012, I am loosely participating in an online book club hosted by Life as MOM.  While I'm not reading her program, my reading list for the year was inspired by it as well as some of my selections from her readings.  You can check out her reading program as well as the posts and selections of other bloggers participating in the club here.

For the month of January, I had chosen to read The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.  Unfortunately, I have not yet read enough of the book to really talk about it yet.  I obtained my copy from the library later than I had hoped.  As well, I was trying to finish Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff before it had to be returned.  I have at least finished the biography on Cleopatra and would like to talk a little bit about that before I share my first impressions on The Happiness Project.

I picked up Cleopatra close to Christmas last month after seeing it on a recommended biography list.  I enjoy reading biographies from time to time, and it had been awhile since I'd picked one up.  Some of my favorites are on famous (or rather infamous) medieval British queens by Alison Weir.  While I'd never been particularly interested in Cleopatra, who had always rather seemed melodramatic, an assumption supported by Elizabeth Taylor's portrayal, the recommendations I read online, mostly focusing on Schiff's excellent writing, expert storytelling and fresh perspective, convinced me to give it a go.

Schiff makes a very pointed effort to portray Cleopatra in a very different light than she is normally portrayed.  From the beginning she points out that the last Egyptian queen's story is told through the eyes of male historians, all Roman, who were opposed to the type of woman Cleopatra was likely to be.  Roman's prefer their women to be the ancient equivalent of the barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen adage: obedient, content to remain in the background, a support to her husband, and certainly not equal to a man.  Should a woman have any competency beyond running a household, any persuasive ability, any considerable intellectual prowess, or authority of her own, then she was clearly wanton and practicing magic.  Cleopatra, who was well-educated, erudite, and clever, by her own personality went against the Roman grain.  According to Schiff, Romans found royalty itself repugnant, and that Cleopatra was both female and royal merely cemented her as an infamous woman.  This is the woman the Roman historians portray: a cautionary morality tale.  Instead, according to Schiff, it is more likely that Cleopatra was intelligent, persuasive, a competent ruler, well-loved by her people, and cool-headed, able to win allies and compatriots, deeply resourceful. Contrast Elizabeth Taylor's portrayal (think petulant, manipulative seductress) with a capable woman who made the most of her opportunities.

Schiff certainly spins a new light on several Cleopatra legends.  (Her appearance before Julius Caesar from within a carpet?  Yeah, not likely so steamy or so attractive: she was likely carried in that rug across a swamp and through a teeming metropolis.  She was likely sweaty and disheveled.)  A wanton woman?  Though she was never married to anyone other than her brothers (strictly political marriage, and considering their ages and their bitter rivalries, never consummated), she seemed to be monogomous: there is no evidence that she was ever involved with anyone than Julius Caesar and Marc Antony, both affairs years in duration and several years apart from each other.  Despite the debacle of Actium, for decades she ruled Egypt well, coming through famines and hardships while still providing for her people and maintaining wealth.

By the end of the biography, Schiff takes such great care to list alternative readings of the history to the motives prescribed by Cleopatra's Roman chroniclers, that you begin to wonder where the credence truly lies.  During the recounting of Actium, the efforts are almost belabored.  There is no doubt that despite Cleopatra's more-than-able reign over Egypt, her last year(s) with Antony showed a great deal of poor judgement.  Actium can be nothing less than a debacle.  Still, Schiff's case for Cleopatra is compelling.  I found myself often thinking, "Really?  Oh, really?" throughout the account and desiring even to look up biographies on Antony and especially Octavian, a.k.a. Caesar Augustus, feeling I had not previously known or understood either man at all.  (On a side note, a cousin has sent me a copy of Plutarch's Parallel Lives, and I can't wait to read it in more depth, as Plutarch is one historian responsible for the account of Cleopatra and Antony). 

As for The Happiness Project, I am only a few chapters in.  I confess to finding her long explanation of the formation of her project, from research to philosophical rambling definition, to be a bit tedious.  As well as her constant dependence on psychological research a little "know-it-all".  I also struggle with how much I disagree with some of the philosophical statements she pins her project on.  (Happiness is not the purpose of humanity or human existence.  My faith squarely lays that in worship at my God's feet, from which a great deal of joy can be derived.)  However, already she has supplied some excellent ideas.  For one, I liked her gradual approach to adopting resolutions or changes: pick a few for one month, work on those, and then add a few more the next month.  Theorectically, by the end of the year, you would have accomplished a great deal of change without overwhelming yourself with too much at once.  Already, I've been looking at my own resolutions trying to see how they can be spread out over time for better chances of success.

Granted, again, I'm only chapters in.  Who knows, by the end of the book, I may be a huge fan.  For now, I have reservations.  I hate to say this, as I feel I'm judging before I really know the whole.  But that is the honest reaction at this time.  I'm not giving up on it, though.  Next month, I still hope to have The Well-Trained Mind read and ready to discuss (though I am beginning to be concerned that I may not get it in time, as I will be getting it from the library; I've been on hold for a copy for nearly two months now).  I also intend to finish The Happiness Project and finish the review then.  Plus, perhaps I'll have a little Plutarch for you as well. (Smiley face could be inserted here....)

Anyone read anything worth talking about lately?